First Look At Angolan Actor Hoji Fortuna In Hal Hartley's "Meanwhile"

By
Tambay A. Obenson
|
Shadow and ActJune 20, 2011 at 3:52AM

I've never been a big fan of the films of hermetic indie filmmaker Hal Hartley, even though he was once considered one of a handful of young trailblazing auteurs, back in the late 80s/early 90s, along with the likes of Gus Van Sant, Todd Haynes and others, who were producing esoteric, smart, cheaply-made arty films that appealed to a small, tightly-knit, proud subculture of young (mostly white) film lovers; films that defined his auteurist style, like The Unbelievable Truth and Trust, which featured some of the earliest performances by actors like Eddie Falco, and Henry Fool years later.

I've never been a big fan of the films of hermetic indie filmmaker Hal Hartley, even though he was once considered one of a handful of young trailblazing auteurs, back in the late 80s/early 90s, along with the likes of Gus Van Sant, Todd Haynes and others, who were producing esoteric, smart, cheaply-made arty films that appealed to a small, tightly-knit, proud subculture of young (mostly white) film lovers; films that defined his auteurist style, like The Unbelievable Truth and Trust, which featured some of the earliest performances by actors like Eddie Falco, and Henry Fool years later.

But, like his contemporaries, he's definitely what you'd call an acquired taste.

The last film of his I watched was The Girl From Monday (2005), and I couldn't get through it. However, I'll say that, despite my struggles with the man's work, I appreciate his attempts to disrupt the expected order of things. They aren't "bad" films; just not for me.

Anyway... all that to lead to the above photo, which is the only still image available thus far for his current project, Meanwhile, a film I mentioned in an earlier post today - the Hoji Fortuna profile HERE.

The Angolan actor (Fortuna) co-stars in Hartley's Meanwhile, as a character named "Otis" (in the photo above).

And what is Meanwhile about? I have absolutely no idea! Why? Well, no synopsis has been made public just yet. Why? I dunno... I checked the film's IMDB page first; nothing there; then I performed a Google search, found several mentions of the film, but none with a synopsis. I even found a few other folks wondering what the film is about.

The info may be out there; I just don't have the time to dig for it.

Hartley does have a Facebook fan page for his production company, and a website, so I sent a message asking for a synopsis, as well as what Hoji's involvement in the film entails.